The Equity Litmus Test: Is Your Organization Ready for Results?

In this episode of The Equity Hour, Dr. Tami Dean the critical conversation about the difference between performative and practical equity in leadership. Are you truly ready to lead equity work in your organization, or are you merely ticking boxes? Dr. Dean explores essential considerations, from understanding the "why" behind your equity initiatives to aligning policies, structures, and financial resources for genuine impact. Whether you're a leader or a team member, this episode will guide you in assessing readiness, planning strategically, and fostering a culture that supports meaningful equity work. Tune in for actionable insights on creating an equitable and inclusive environment that goes beyond surface-level commitments.

Transcript

Tami: 0:32

Hello. Hello and welcome to another episode of the equity hour with me. Your host, Dr. Tami Dean. I am so excited to kick off our first season two episode. With just me this time, but I have some great gas lined up for you coming up here in season two. I wanted to start off this fall with talking about. Performative. Versus practical. Equity application from a leader. That ship perspective considering. When is your organization ready? Or when is your organization not ready for the equity work that you're trying to do? This is a very important question. Because I believe. That, the reason that we get a lot of performative equity. Implementation is because the pre-work wasn't done within the organization to align system structures, values monies to get the desired outcome. Or the supposed of desired outcome. Because you will find typically in an organization, if there is a strong enough desire for results. There are policies, procedures. And financial backing for that implementation. And so I want to go through a few considerations. As you're thinking about. Your organization, your business, your school, your district. Any of those places. And especially if you are a leader, And you are looking to lead this work. Or help find someone to lead this work. In collaboration with you. If you are someone who is not in a leadership position, these questions will help you think through. What do you notice and what is in place? So perhaps it opens up a space for you to ask the questions. To maybe get to a more practical implementation. In your organizational space. So one of the most essential parts to planning. And looking at adjusting our systems and structures for equity. Is taking the time. To plan. And I say that because oftentimes they'll be like, oh, we really don't have an equity statement. We're going to you, like, we saw this after George Floyd actually, right? Like this huge influx of. We're going to make an equity statement we see on black lives matter, like all of this. For lack of a better word. Propaganda came out. With, we're going to jump on this quote unquote bandwagon. Of equity. And what that. Didn't have while well intended in a lot of those spaces, it didn't have the time to plan and to ask ourselves the why. The why who is so important. Why is your organization looking to engage in this equity work? Why is this a key initiative? Why. Our policies and practices needing to be reviewed and adjusted. If we don't understand the why. Then it's going to be really difficult. To do the, how we're going to do it. Because a lot of times, the people that you're trying to bring on board are going to want to know the why, because if you don't have the why it's usually disjointed and it doesn't make sense, or you're asking people to do this work and you're not compensating them for this work. Or you're asking people to do the work who are not in positions that are able to execute or positions of power or executive leadership in the organization. Right. So what the why tells us. Is. What is our motivation? Very important question. If your motivation is because everybody else is doing it, that's probably not going to stick. It is going to become performative. Sorry to be that blunt, but why, why. What is your motivation? Economics. Why are we doing this? How are we going to financially? Support the work. The time that goes into the work and the people. Who are doing the work? So I'm again, I'm going to say, if you are not willing to invest. Financial resources in your equity. Work. Then you are being already inequitable because you are asking for this emotional labor. Of people. Versus compensating them for this type of skillset and work. What is the timeline? So if I'm thinking about planning, What is our motivation and what is our timeline? What is it we're looking to accomplish? Why are we looking to accomplish it? When are we going to accomplishment? Accomplish it. Right. And I'll get into metrics in a second. And then willingness. Are those in this space willing? To put in the time and effort to do the work. Is the executive leadership or leadership willing. To lead the work to provide the time and space to do the work, to provide the support, to do the work. What is the willingness. If there is not willingness, if you don't have a timeline, if you don't know how you're going to financially support it. If we don't understand our motivation. Your organization isn't ready. Okay. So we want to look at all of those things and understand the why. And then as we're thinking about those things, right, I need to think about. How are we evaluating what we're saying here? Right. So what does this evaluation matrix? How do we quantify this data? How does this build into our system? So for example, If we say that we value. That you know, everyone in our organization, and I'm just making this up off the top of my head. You know, is able to provide An equitable and engaging. Space for our clients. What does that mean? Or if you want them to learn about certain components of equity, as it relates to your motivation, how are you building that into expectations? And what I'm getting at here. Is. You need to plan. And when by planning, you're thinking about how does this become a part of our system and expectation? And not planning. Like we took a week to plan like three to six months to plan. And we're in this work is not passive. It isn't an opt in or opt out. That's where the willingness question came in because you can't have people opting out. Building an equitable environment. If you're saying this is part of our system and structure and what we value, then how are you building that into evaluation? How are you building that into feedback? How are you building that into professional development opportunities? How are you building that in to your company or system or structure or school as a whole. And when we're thinking about it, we need to, then your leadership needs to sell the vision. What is our vision? So that everyone understands the why. So it makes sense. Because if you don't have a vision, you don't have a why you don't have a plan. Then people are going to make up what those are in their mind, and it may or may not fit the outcomes that you're looking to have. So there might be a misalignment. And then that's when things go off the rails and then it becomes performative. Okay. So I know this. Episodes feels very negative and I'm not intending it to be. I'm just trying to be very realistic. About what it is you need to do. When you're looking to establish these systems, you need to be thoughtful and intentional. And you need to have the right people and partners in place. Okay. I love volunteers and people that are passionate about this work in organizations and you see it all the time. These people also get burnt out. And we shouldn't be expecting them to take on all the leadership around this work without compensation. So again, What do we want? What do we want it to look like? And we're going to make a plan and we're going to scope out that plan. And build an inclusive environment that supports all of those things. Okay. So helpful way. To do this is to also get feedback and get information. Right. What are the skillsets? Of our team around this, right. What ability do they have? What assets are they bringing to the table? What are their hopes, fears, ideas related to this? So we don't want to be doing this in isolation. So this is where the timing and the planning takes place. So you can gather this information, use these voices as a part of the process to be planning. Okay. So, what is it? We want to be learning. We need to identify what is our problem? What is our challenge? Why we're addressing it, how we're going to do that. We need to. Clearly make it fit within our culture needs to be provided in multiple ways to address and meet the needs of multiple people. And we need to have a check-in like, how is this going? Are we meeting those expectations? If we're saying this is our outcome. Are we meeting what we say we're going to be doing. And if your, if you're a principal and your teachers are saying, we're not, if you're an assistant superintendent and they're saying, we're not, if your community is saying, we're not, if you're in a business organization and your employees are saying, you're not, you need to listen. And figure out the why, and then go back to the planning. Okay. So we really need to be thinking about what is the results and when things again, I'm going to say it again, are important enough. They are written into policies. So checking the policy and having a DEI or equity strategic plan. So you need to be looking very comprehensively at all of these components when you're planning and asking yourself is my organization. Ready. And when you do. I finished planning. And when you're working on this team, you want to have a diverse team. You need a diverse team. I hope it goes without saying, but. This. weight Of equity work is not meant for persons from marginalized. Communities to bear the burden. I'm going to say that again, that this is not from people from marginalized. Communities within your organization to bear the burden of this work. They may or may not want to, they may or may not have the expertise to lead the work. Do they have personal experiences? Yes. Do they want to always share them? No. Do they want to always take the shame and the guilt. From majority. Populations? No. So we need a diverse team. All right. So. We need to understand. The cultural climate of our organization and do an assessment. You probably want to do an equity audit. Not from someone who works there. So you get an outside perspective We are looking to be transformational and by being transformational, we are being intentional in the scope of our planning, the scope of our work. Our policies, procedures, financials, and outcomes. So we want to think. Through. What is it we want in the future. Where is it? We want to go. Okay. And how are we going to get there? So you can think of it like backwards design or backwards planning. With the knowledge. Right. That. Let's say we plan a 10, 15, 20, year plan. For where we want to end up. We also need to recognize that there might be new information that comes along the way. So, how are we going to think about. How we may or may not incorporate. Trends. Versus new. Strategic information. Because we've seen a few trends pop in and out around equity. Especially over. You know, the last 10 years. So we're not. Doing this work to be. Popular. Or to get on the bandwagon or. Any number of those phrases, we are doing this work because it is important. It is intentional. And we're looking to provide an equitable. Learning working. Community. For those within our organization or our community or our school, we're looking to disrupt. Systems and structures that have historically been in, place. To provide power and privilege to certain groups over others. And in order to do that, I need to know. am am I ready? What is the why. How are we going to do it? And who are we going to make sure is on board to make sure it happens and is in place. So. I want to end there today because I feel like that is a lot to be thinking about. With regards to your work as a leader in what you're trying to do. If you are looking for support with. How to get started. And develop a plan. Please reach out to me. At drtamidean@dragonflyrising.org. You can hit me up on Instagram and send me a DM and I would be happy to set up a consultation with you. Or your team to discuss what your next steps might be. So I want to thank you all for taking the time to listen into this episode today. I am super excited about the intentionality around thinking. When and how do we do and engage with this equity work within our organizations and so super excited about our upcoming episodes. Make sure. You like, and subscribe on your favorite podcast providers. So you don't miss an episode and please share this within your network. And until next time, make sure you use your voice. Talk to you soon.